<span style="color:cyan">GUIDE SUPPORT</span>: Support and assistance in the installation and troubleshooting of problems related to this guide are availiable in two locations - either will eventually get you the help you need. The first is located on the [http://forum.step-project.com/topic/13092-lexys-legacy-of-the-dragonborn-special-edition/ STEP Forums]. The second, more real-time, location is on Lexy's [https://discord.gg/xj7JcZ7 LOTD Discord Channel].

<span style="color:cyan">GUIDE SUPPORT</span>: Support and assistance in the installation and troubleshooting of problems related to this guide are availiable in two locations - either will eventually get you the help you need. The first is located on the [http://forum.step-project.com/topic/13092-lexys-legacy-of-the-dragonborn-special-edition/ STEP Forums]. The second, more real-time, location is on Lexy's [https://discord.gg/xj7JcZ7 LOTD Discord Channel].

<span style="color:cyan">MOD SUGGESTIONS</span>: Don't see a mod in the list that you think needs to be included? Check on Lexy's [https://trello.com/b/V4o4FPSl/lexys-legacy-of-the-dragonborn-special-edition-suggested-mods Suggested Mods Trello] board to be sure it hasn't already been suggested, is in testing, or has been previously rejected.

<span style="color:cyan">MOD SUGGESTIONS</span>: Don't see a mod in the list that you think needs to be included? Check on Lexy's [https://trello.com/b/V4o4FPSl/lexys-legacy-of-the-dragonborn-special-edition-suggested-mods Suggested Mods Trello] board to be sure it hasn't already been suggested, is in testing, or has been previously rejected.

GUIDE SUPPORT: Support and assistance in the installation and troubleshooting of problems related to this guide are availiable in two locations - either will eventually get you the help you need. The first is located on the STEP Forums. The second, more real-time, location is on Lexy's LOTD Discord Channel.
MOD SUGGESTIONS: Don't see a mod in the list that you think needs to be included? Check on Lexy's Suggested Mods Trello board to be sure it hasn't already been suggested, is in testing, or has been previously rejected.

Load Order Optimisation Tool, or LOOT, is designed to help users maintain a working load order for their mods with a minimal amount of effort. Perform the following (and again every time mods change with an esp):

[Leveled List Modifiers Group]

[Load After LOOT Rules] (These mods stay in their current group, just add Load After rule)

Individual Mods

LOOT Rules

CollegeOfWinterholdImmersive.esp

Load After MrissiTailOfTroubles.esp

CLARALUX SSE.esp

Load After RelightingSkyrim-FULL.esp, Blowing In The Wind Merged.esp

DiverseDragonsCollectionSE.esp

Load After DeadlyDragons.esp

ogSplendorDragons.esp

Load After DiverseDragonsCollectionSE.esp

Point The Way.esp

Load After UniqueBorderGates-All.esp

aMidianBorn_ContentAddon.esp

Load After Lore Weapon Expansion.esp

Start Mod Organizer 2.
Select LOOT in the executable selection box and click [Run].
Find the icon that looks like a horizontal bar graph (mouse over text should state "Sort Plugins") and click it.
After some processing, the calculated load order is displayed in the right pane of LOOT. Click the [Apply] button.
Click the [X] on the title bar to close LOOT.

All mods currently installed will now be ordered based upon the master list downloaded by the tool and the user metadata that was created while installing mods in this guide. However, they may not be in the order the plugins themselves are expecting. To fix this perform the following:

Open SSEEdit in Mod Organizer 2 and click [OK].
Select all ESMs/ESPs and select "Sort Masters".
Click the [X] in the upper right-hand corner, uncheck "Backup plugins", and click [OK].

Fores New Idles in Skyrim - FNIS

Fores New Idles in Skyrim, hereafter referenced as FNIS is designed to allow new skeleton and animation designs not possible with the default Skyrim engine such as new animations, gender-specific animations, poses, etc. This involves the use of an external patcher GenerateFNIS_for_Users.exe which will create specialized .hkx files to match the current skeleton and animation configuration. Perform the following (and again every time animation mods are changed):

Start Mod Organizer 2 and check that your overwrite folder is empty.

Select FNIS in the executable selection box and click [Run]. The FNIS main interface should appear, if it does not, review the installation section for FNIS.

In the Available Patches at the bottom of the window, check the box adjacent to GENDER Specific Animations, SKELETON Arm Fix, tktk1's TK Dodge/Ultimate Combat.

Click the [Update FNIS Behavior] button and wait for a message to appear in the window stating "X animations for Y mods successfully included.".

Click [Exit]

Mod Organizer 2 has automatically placed the generated files into the overwrite folder in Mod Organizer.

Wrye Bash

WARNING: DISABLE SSE-Terrain-Tamriel.esm until you see another warning telling you to re-activate it later in this page. Do not run LOOT past this point. The only exception is updating which requires disabling all mods in the Finishing Line using the Left Panel in MO2.

Idiot check: Make sure the following Bash Tags have been set before creating the Bash Patch

Bash tags can be set by clicking on the mod in question, then right-clicking in the space on the right pane labelled bash tags.

Mod Name

Plugin

Bash Tag Update Required:

Amulets of Skyrim SSE

SL01AmuletsSkyrim.esp

DELEV, STATS

Animals Merged

Animals Merged.esp

DELEV, STATS

Landscape Environment and Clutter Merged

Landscape Environment and Clutter Merged.esp

GRAPHICS

LOTD Patches Merged

LOTD Patches Merged.esp

DELEV, GRAPHICS, INVENT, NAMES, RELEV, STATS

MLU Patches Merged

MLU Patches Merged.esp

DELEV, INVENT, GRAPHICS, NAMES, RELEV, STATS

OMEGA CACO Patches Merged

OMEGA CACO Patches Merged.esp

DELEV, RELEV

Typo Patches Merged

Typo Patches Merged.esp

NAMES

Weapons & Armours Merged

Weapons Armours Merged.esp

INVENT, NAMES, STATS

YOT - Your Own Thoughts Merged

YOT - Your Own Thoughts Merged.esp

NAMES

Pre Bash Merge

Pre Bash Merged.esp

INVENT, NAMES, RELEV, STATS

Zim's Immersive Artifacts

ZIA_Complete Pack.esp

NAMES, STATS

Wrye Bash is a tool that can be used to install/manage mods but more importantly it has tools to merge levelled lists and can even merge entire mods together into a "Bashed Patch". Perform the following (and again every time mods change with an esp):

zEdit

Select the 'OK' button at the bottom of the load order list (You might have to mouse wheel down to see it)

After zEdit loads the mods in the load order, right-click in the left panel and select 'Manage Patchers' from the popup menu.

On the left side of the window that opens, click on "Know Your Enemy's Armor Patcher".

Make sure the "Patch armor descriptions?" box is set to false. (You will only need to change this once.)

In the left panel, click on Build Patches.

Uncheck everything except "Know your armor patcher"

know_your_armor_patch.esp should be in the list, click the 'Build' button by it's name.

Wait until know_your_armor_patch.esp appears at the bottom of the load order, or a message that reads "1 patch plugins built successfully" is displayed.

Click the X.

Now select 'Manage Patchers' for a second time from the popup menu.

Uncheck everything except "Know Your Enemy Patcher".

know_your_enemy_patch.esp should be listed, click the 'Build' button by its name.

Wait until know_your_enemy_patch.esp appears at the bottom of the load order, or a message that reads "1 patch plugins built successfully" is displayed.

Click the X.

Now select 'Manage Patchers' for a third and final time from the popup menu.

Uncheck everything except the options listed under zPatch.

In the Left pane click Under the NPC Visual Transfer now you see a new box on the Right Pane add the following: NPC Retexture Merge SSE.esp RSChildren.esp and OMEGA NPC Retexture - Conflict Resolution.esp

In the left pane click Build Patches.

zPatch.esp should be listed, Click the 'Build' button by its name.

Wait until zPatch.esp appears at the bottom of the load order, or a message that reads "1 patch plugins built successfully" is displayed.

Click the X.

Now click the X to close zEdit. It will prompt you to save or discard the file. Click 'Save' and make sure that "know_your_armor_patch.esp", "know_your_enemy_patch.esp", "zPatch.esp" are saved

Open zEdit and select zMerge from the drop-down menu along with the profile you wish to use.

Press Start Session.

Hit the Button that says Relink Scripts.

Once zMerge has finished you can exit.

A Mod called Relinker Output should have been automatically created. You can now activate it in Mod Organizer 2.

xLODGEN

WARNING: ENABLE SSE-Terrain-Tamriel.esm for this part only.

Notice

This may take some time to run. On my system, it takes Approx 2 hours

Make sure xLODGenx64.exe has been added as an executable in Mod Organizer 2.
Make sure you have added the correct Arguments.
Make sure you have activated SSE-Terrain-Tamriel.esm as the warning above says to.
Run xLODGenx64.exe using Mod Organizer 2.

Once xLODGEN has finished, navigate to where you created the SSELODGen_Output then install into mod Organizer 2 and activate.
Once xLODGEN has run you can deactivate SSE-Terrain-Tamriel.esm it is only required for xLODGEN generation.

Notice

Once xLODGEN has been created and activated in Mod Organizer 2 move A Quality World Map and Better Falskaar and Wyrmstooth Map With Roads underneath SSELODGen_Output in the Left Pane of Mod Organizer 2

Setting Up DynDOLOD for Ultra Trees

WARNING: DISABLE SSE-Terrain-Tamriel.esm for the last time. It is not required by the game from this point onwards, unless re-generating xLODGen

Notice

Ultra Trees will significantly increase your VRAM usage. If you have a 4GB or less graphics card consider generating traditional LOD.
To set traditional lod, first leave TreeLOD as "1" in DynDOLOD_SEE.ini. Second make sure "Generate Tree Lods" is checked within DynDOLOD.

For the purpose of this guide will be generating Ultra Trees using DynDOLOD.

Make sure DynDOLOD Standalone is installed.

Navigate to <DynDOLOD 2.67 Path>\Edit Scripts\DynDOLOD\cache

Delete all files except becauseofreasons.txt.

Navigate to <DynDOLOD 2.67 Path>\Edit Scripts\DynDOLOD\

Open up the DynDOLOD_SSE.ini

Change the line TreeLOD= to "0"

Now We can Begin the process of generating DynDOLOD.

TexGen64

Make sure TexGen64.exe has been added as an executable in Mod Organizer 2.
Run TexGen64 using Mod Organizer 2.
In the popup window Select where you want the TexGen Output to go (For the purpose of the guide I recommend selecting the Mod Organizer 2 Mods Folder).
In the popup window change LOD Texture Size to [512].
Click Start and allow TexGen to Run.
Once the execution has completed, select [Exit] to close the window.
Navigate to the TexGen output directory <Mod Organizer 2 path\mods\TexGen Output> and activate it.

DynDOLOD64

Make sure DynDOLOD64.exe has been added as an executable in Mod Organizer 2.
Run DynDOLOD using Mod Organizer.
In the popup window Select where you want the DynDOLOD Output to go (For the purpose of the guide I recommend selecting the Mod Organizer 2 Mods Folder).
click [Advanced >>>].
In the top left selection box, check all of the boxes by right-clicking and then clicking "Select All".
Below the preset buttons, check the boxes marked "Candles" and "FXGlow".
In the options panel, tick the "Generate static LOD", "Generate DynDOLOD" "Windows", "High", "Fake lights in child worlds" "Create texture atlas" checkboxes.
In the options panel change Max tile size to "512".
Click the [High] preset button (If you have a 4GB card and are not use Ultra trees you can select the Medium preset).
Click [OK], this will begin the LOD generation process (can take up to 30 minutes).
Once the execution has completed, select [Save & Exit] to close the window then click [OK] on the following window to close the program.
Navigate to the DynDOLOD Output directory <Mod Organizer 2 path\mods\DynDOLOD Output> place it below TexGen Output in the Left Pane of Mod Organizer 2 and activate it.
Manually place DynDOLOD.esm after Gray Fox Cowl.esm.